Why Was Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassinated?

On the faithful day of June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria heir to the Austro Hungarian Throne was killed in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip (19 years old), believed to be part of the Bosnian Serb Assassins.

The motive behind the assassination was to break the Austria-Hungary’s provinces so that they would be able to form the Greater Serbia or what was later called Yugoslavia. The Archduke holds dominion over the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the treaty of Berlin. The powers gave the Kingdom of Serbia the authority to become a sovereign state.

Gavrilo Princip was just used by Black Hand Society because they do not want the Archduke to rule over Bosnia and make their plan more difficult to accomplish. There were ‘seven conspirators, that planned to kill the archduke as he was touring the city. The first threw a bomb that bounced off and exploded on the other car. Due to the danger, they immediately went to the reception on the City Hall. The other conspirators didn’t want to ‘injure too many civilians, and let the car pass without attacking them.

After the ceremonies ended the Austrian Commander General Potiorek advised the Archduke to take the shortest route to leave the city. Concerned for their safety, the Archduke agreed and told his driver to take the shortest route out of the city. However the conspirators are still after his life and whether by chance or not, the Archduke’s char stopped in front of Gavrilo who fired 2 shots that led to the death of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie.

The officers immediately arrested Princip and he was beaten up pretty badly. The other conspirators were arrested and were presented to trial. Some of them were sentenced for execution. Princip however, died in prison from tuberculosis and was not executed in public.